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Topic: Advice on buying land (Read 2416 times)

Well I find myself all of a sudden with an opportunity that does not appear often and need some of your thoughts on the topic. My primary residence is 7 acres and is situated among several other 3 to 8 acre residential parcels. Directly behind me (we share approx. 650 linear feet) there is a man that owns 80 to 100 acres. As a result of a divorce, he is offering to sell a 10 acre section of land, half of which borders with my land. My neighbor has offered to split the 10 acres with me because the other half of the land borders the back of his land. So we would each end up buying 5 acres, my rectangle would basically turn into a square. His new parcel has road access, mine is land locked except through my own property making it hard to resell in the future unless I re-divide it the other direction making two 6 acre parcels.

Price - he is asking a reasonable price for the land compared to everything else available nearby and compared to prices in recent history. I think we can do a little better which would make it pretty competitive, but not the cheapest price land has sold for around us.

The trade off - we had been saving up to do a garage addition on our house in the next couple years. If we purchase the land, the garage addition would likely be pushed significantly further into the future.

The alternative - about 10 years ago a company tried to rezone this property so they could build a sub division. We are not very far from town, so this is happening all around us. At that time, the residents tried to fight it. Finally the current owner purchased all of it to avoid the sub division. Now that it's available, I have to assume it could be purchased for the same reason again. If that happens, my back yard view would become the backside of many homes.

I agree, the additional land would not be of much use compared to what I already have. I would just hate to regret it 5 years from now as my view turns into construction and new housing. Then I definitely would have to move.

I agree, the additional land would not be of much use compared to what I already have. I would just hate to regret it 5 years from now as my view turns into construction and new housing. Then I definitely would have to move.

I think with the way our economy is starting to unravel, 5 years from now just might look a lot different than any of us might suspect...

I'm thinking this a time for caution. Buckle down and make sure you are prepped both with respect to a place, food, and financially.

Given the choice between spending money on land or buying silver and gold, I'd choose door #2

I went through this. I'm on 1.25 acres, but surrounded on 3 sides by untouchable ravine and forest, one small substandard plot about 1/4 acre, and 2.5 acres to the south that the owner has been trying to sell and develop since 1996. nothing has happened for him yet, but he tried to sell me the 1/4 acre behind me for $125k to "protect my view" of the Puget sound off my back deck. I did some research and found out he'd never be able to build more than a shed on that lot and height restrictions were in place as well.

I agree that trees are a better option than spending your money on something that will most likely not give your home any more value, nor safety/protection, or keep you from the urban sprawl that is most definitely headed your way. if you're looking at real privacy, Lombardy poplars grow 1-6 ft per year and top out around 40-50'. strong windbreaks that the apple orchard farmers in eastern WA have been using for years. or you could do like Gene Hackman did, 40 acre spread, surrounded on all sides by way to close together, way overgrown doug firs. His former home near my place has a helicopter landing pad, but you'd never know until the copter crested the tree line because they do such a great job breaking up sound. Almost impossible to see through them too.

If you can get it dirt cheap I would say do it, but as it has no road access etc (vs the other parcel) I would say it's worth 10% or so of what the other one is worth. It's basically unbuildable as in (no road access) so is only worth what the appraised value of your property would increase by. You might be willing to pay a bit more for increased privacy but I would start the discussion there.

It depends on where you are financially and what the development around you looks like.

Here are my thoughts. If you have decent amount of cash/liquid assets that will carry you through SHTF, AND you think the local economy in IL will support appreciation of your real estate later, then go for it if you think you are getting it at a decent price.

IL is not the economic engine of the US right now so I have reservations about how that land converts to cash later.

If you are good on cash and liquid assets and you think the expansion of the population puts you in the path, then you might think about what the next 5-10 years looks like. Generally people like larger parcels of land and if you sit on a larger piece in the path of population growth, you might stand to benefit economically. If in doubt talk to a realtor.

But again, if you don't have enough liquid assets to carry you through 1-2 years of collapse, then go to square one and start getting that part of your life in order.

Logged

Kids today don't know how easy they have it. When I was young, I had to walk 9 feet through shag carpet to change the TV channel.

Now where are my manors, creating a thread without pictures is like peanut butter without jelly. We got home just before sunset last night and I was able to make a quick lap around the land in question. It's mostly prairie surrounded by woods. Some of the prairie sections are 6+ feet tall since we have some really great black dirt in this area. I had to stand on top of the ranger to get a picture worth anything. My son was also pretty excited to get to stand on top of it.

Boy, come to think about it I sure would like to own property like that. Tough call on need vs. want

You took the words right out of my mouth....beautiful! Any market for hay in the area? You might be able to sell the grass and help cover the cost of acquisition. (I would still start with a price that is based on the increased value of your property only seeing as it is landlocked. ) But darn that looks nice!

I know what you mean. On paper financially, it makes almost zero sense for me to consider buying it. But when I when I walk out there .... it's hard to let it go without knowing what will become of it.

Earlier I mentioned that there was a push to develop this land several years ago. I have now done more research and learned that this was prior to the 2007 / 2008 housing crash. During that time the developer purchased a similar plot of land closer to town, divided it up and has it listed for sale with lots of small lots. It has been for sale ever since. You know how many lots he has sold? None, not a single one. Ever since 2008 our area has been in a slide backwards, not a growth. If I look further west of my house, there is another development where the roads actually got installed and a few houses were built prior to the crash. There are probably 50 lots that are each 1 to 3 acres. Of the 50 available, maybe 8 have been built on. So there is currently a very large supply of places to build a house and a shortage of people coming to the area. This definitely makes me a lot less worried about the land in question by my house becoming developed.

On another note, I have discovered that one of my neighbors is experimenting with growing 18 acres of organic corn to sell to the local breweries. If that becomes successful, this land would be an ideal location since it is surrounded by forest, road and the 3 houses of which mine is one. There would be almost no danger of being contaminated by another non-organic farm.